Chapter 21 Briar #2
“I’m Dominic Lee,” he replies evenly, the difference in the two men’s temperaments highlighted by the ease with which Dom speaks. “And I know exactly who I am, which is why I’m not at all concerned with who you think I am.”
“You can’t just come in here and take my family, my wife.”
Dom chuckles like that’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard.
“Not your family, not your wife. And there’s no competition here.
Respectfully, you can never be me. Disrespectfully, I would never want to be you.
” He gives Tyler a sneering up and down glance, making it obvious he finds him lacking.
“And you already have someone else, remember?”
Tyler completely misses the reference to Amber, who is watching the whole exchange with a confused look on her face, and focuses on me. “Babe, are you gonna let him talk to me like this?”
He’s not getting anywhere with Dominic and the loss is obvious.
Tyler isn’t successfully riling him up to make him seem out of control, nor inciting him to become the violent aggressor he wants to make him out to be.
Dominic is sitting still, his hand on my knee, breathing steadily, and he has not raised his voice a bit.
On the other hand, Tyler is red-faced, panting, sweating, and looks ready to explode.
I don’t know if he’s ever actually gone up against someone like Dominic.
I don’t know if there is anyone like Dominic.
I certainly wasn’t like this. In the early days, I’d beg and plead for Tyler to pay attention, cry when my feelings were ignored or misrepresented, and eventually, do anything to prove my own affection, while he sat back and gloated.
Later, it just became easier to not put up a fight to begin with.
I functioned around Tyler, creating my own pockets of happiness where I could.
But now, without him, my happiness has grown exponentially. So has my spine. I just wasn’t using it to its full capabilities. That ends now.
“I am not your babe,” I say, keeping my voice as close to an approximation of Dom’s even dismissiveness as I can. “And Dominic can speak to you any way he’d like. He’s a grown man. I trust him to handle himself appropriately.”
And isn’t that an amazing thing to say about a partner? The freedom of trusting Dominic rushes through me, healing so many years of hurt.
Tyler scoffs. “I get it. Gotta play it cool for your new man. But we know the truth. You still love me.” He makes it sound like we’re having a secret conversation that Dominic and Amber can’t hear.
In fact, despite Dom’s reminder, I think Tyler has truly forgotten that his girlfriend is on his other side, listening to every word he says.
Or maybe he thinks he has her sufficiently tricked into submission with his manipulative ways. Hell, maybe he does? I don’t know.
“I never loved you,” I say, the truth coming to me even now. “I loved who you pretended to be. But you can’t pretend for long before the real you starts to come out.” I glance past Tyler to Amber, hoping she hears me too.
Tyler recoils, and I think for the first time ever, he’s actually surprised by me.
Like he didn’t accurately predict what I was going to say or do.
It’s the only explanation I have for why he shifts focus back to Dominic, who by all accounts is the more dangerous target.
Except . . . maybe Tyler is scared of me.
At least a teeny tiny bit. I press my lips together, hiding the joy that brings me.
“She probably told you I’m a narcissist or some psychobabble BS like that, right?”
Dominic nods. “She did actually. But I think she’s wrong.
” That draws both me and Tyler up short.
I didn’t know Dom didn’t agree with me, but I’m open to hearing his thoughts.
He’s damn perceptive, obviously, and has fixed some of my damage quicker than any therapist did.
“I think you’re a nihilist. You don’t love anything, not even yourself, and you want everyone to feel the same emptiness you do, see the same bleakness you do.
” He gives Tyler a chilling grin that borders on maniacal.
“But we don’t. We feel happiness and sadness, joy and sorrow, and are better off for all the ups and downs.
Definitely better off because of the love we experience. ”
Dominic turns his dark eyes to me, his face going soft in a heartbeat. Is he saying? Could he mean? My heart jumps in my chest as I search for any sign I’m misunderstanding, but there’s none. He’s an open book and shares everything he’s feeling and thinking in his gaze.
I once had a man I thought was rescuing me from a lifetime of daddy issues, but he turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
But Dominic? I think he’s a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
He plays this violent, aggressive sport, and has this image as a brute, but inside, he’s perceptive and insightful, honest and genuine, and comes with zero-point-zero baggage, unlike me.
That should be terrifying, but it’s so reassuring.
Safe.
It whispers through my mind again. I’ve finally found the peace I’ve been searching for. In a package I would’ve never considered. But I’m so glad I did. He’s the man I’ve been looking for my whole life.
I lean into Dominic, pressing the tiniest, chastest kiss to his lips, and feel the lift of his smile against my own.
In the background of the celebration happening in my mind, I hear Tyler mutter, “Fuck you, Briar,” before he gets up and stomps away.
Amber leaves with him, but I can’t worry about her.
She has her own journey to get away from Tyler’s toxicity.
I just hope the seeds I planted will eventually bloom into some hard-to-ignore truths in her mind, too, the same way they did in mine.
I stood up to Tyler. I did that. Finally. And it feels . . . amazing.
The relief is immense, like the young woman I used to be, the one with issues that Tyler exploited . . . that bit her tongue so many times . . . that barely made it out . . . that woman finally has her day in the sun, and the lightness of her spirit is returning, filling me with freedom.
I don’t know that I could’ve done it without Dominic, but the most important thing is . . . I did it. When it came down to it, I didn’t hide behind him. I stood in the storm of Tyler, and blew back like the category 5 hurricane I always wanted to be.
Dominic wraps an arm around my shoulder and drags me in, pressing a kiss to my head. When he pulls back, his gaze is full of something that looks suspiciously like pride.
“Feel better?” he whispers.
I nod and tell him, “Thank you.”
With them gone, Dominic and I watch the rest of Harley’s game together, cheering and having a good time.
The team loses, but he shows real focus and hard work, which is what I want him to get out of playing anyway.
I don’t need him to be some hockey protégé.
I want him to have fun doing something he enjoys and have a way to process emotions that are too big for his little body.
“Where’s Dad?” he asks when Dom and I walk up.
“He left,” I say evenly.
“Probably because he saw you and Dom kissing,” Harley teases, his eyes wide and his smile growing. “But you’re friends. Right?”
“The best kind of friends,” Dom tells him, ruffling his sweaty hair.
I bend down, getting on my son’s level. “Is this okay with you?”
“You dating Dominic Lee? Yeah, Mom. It’s kinda the coolest thing ever.
” He grins, glancing back at his teammates, who are watching Harley with newfound awe.
I guess having a professional hockey player show up to your game is pretty cool to nine-year-olds.
Hell, to twenty-eight-year-olds, I think with a tingle.
I stood up to Tyler. Dominic stood up to Tyler.
I’m happy. Harley is happy.
And finally—finally—I breathe freely.